Central NJ End of Ice Season w/ the Kiddo!

[Jigman13]

With the milder temps today, I took a leap and brought my 6 yr old step-son, Gage, out on the ice for half a day at the local honey hole. He has been amped to give it a whirl and has asked numerous times this winter, so today was the day! We got on the ice around 830 AM and I started punching holes, setting up 7 tip ups with large shiners and fatheads. He asked tons of questions and I tried to give him a tutorial with each tip up I set. Once we were all set up, we started to slowly get flags. Missing the first 3-4 flags, he started getting the hang of it a bit with a little assistance from me. I tried to let him do the bulk of the hook setting, fighting, and landing. The first few hook set attempts were hilarious--he swung like he was trying to smash a ball out of Yankee Stadium lol... The spool exploded--line everywhere. Once he toned that down a bit, he started sinking hooks properly, lifting the tip ups out of the holes, feeding line, setting hooks, landing fish... It was awesome to see!

First fish landed was a nice lil 15" largemouth. He was so thrilled he was bouncing off the ice! Next flag popped shortly after as he was standing pretty close to it. He yells, "Hey Jeremy! FLAAGGGGGGG!!!!!" hahaha! I was dying. He continued on, "The spool is spinning, the spool is spinning!" He lifted the tip up, grabbed the line on his own and set the hook. As I'm fixing the line he's ripping out of the hole, I'm watching to see how he's doing. His hand over hand rhythm is totally outta whack and the line started to tangle around his wrists, but he managed. Last few pulls and WHOMP! He slides a monster slab across the ice. I couldnt believe it! I taped her out and she was a hair over 15" & took down a 4" shiner! A NJ trophy slab for the kiddo on his 1st ice trip!!! Too bad I didnt pony up for him to be in the contest or he'd be nipping at my heels in the panfish category! Snapped a bunch of pics and he released her down the hole. She splashed us both in the process.

Things got really slow after that and his interest started to wane as the minutes were fallin off the clock and the wind was picking up. Just as I'm about to call it, FLAAAAGGG! He pops up out of his chair and starts running towards it. He pulls the tip up, grabs the line and whammo! Sets the hook and ices another nice bass. I popped one shortly after and the last fish of the day came on the last tip up as I was wrapping things up. Flag never tripped... The fish was basically sitting on the shiner. I set the hook and handed the line to Gage so he could fight the fish. Out from the hole popped a 12" yellow perch. It was a really nice way to end the day.

So we had about 10-12 flags throughout the half day excursion. Landed a mixed bag of 5 fish and Gage landed a trophy black crappie on his 1st ice fishing adventure. Good times on the hardwater for sure and the perfect way to end my ice fishing season...I couldnt be more proud of the lil' guy! Here's some fish porn... His face says it all! Catch em' up fellas!